Smartphone Security Grows Up With Businesses On The Lookout

It wasn't long ago that John Hering was a college student posing commando style on a rooftop with a BlueTooth sniper rifle on his shoulder. The device, more of a USB dongle than an Uzi, theatrically proved a point made more elegantly in Hering's security research: that mobile phones aren't immune from the security maladies of their PC brethren.

Six years later, Hering is the chief executive of a mobile security company called Lookout. He and his research colleagues packed their boxes and moved to San Francisco in order to launch the company late last year (See: The New Look Of Mobile Security). Now only six months into the endeavor, the team has already raised a second, $11 million round of funding and just announced Lookout's millionth user.

Mobile security, like Hering, was once focused mostly on research and histrionics. But also like Hering, the field has grown up and is becoming increasingly important in today's world. With the rise of consumer mobile devices -- and people trying to exploit them -- mobile security is likely to be taken increasingly serious by both business people and regular consumers.

"I have corporate security officers calling me every day," says Hering. "Hundreds of people write into us every week about how we got their data back or how they found their phone."

Lookout is easiest described as a "Mobile Me" for Android, BlackBerry and Windows mobile phones. Like the Apple product, it can backup data, locate devices or wipe them of sensitive information. According to the company, Lookout has already found 130,000 lost or stolen phones and backed up 300 million contacts.

Some of the most cutting edge threats are still coming from researchers (see, for example, the 'Twilight'-loving Android botnet), but Hering says the intentions of mobile attackers are starting to move beyond fame-making and into moneymaking.

"We're seeing that transition now," he says. "It's very early in mobile security. The sky is not falling today but it's definitely a growing problem."

Hering says corporate users are well-represented in his current user base, and that the push for more consumer-like enterprise devices -- like Cisco's upcoming Cius tablet -- will be a boon for his company as it prepares to roll out premium services later this year. He's hoping Lookout will help keep people ahead of the security risks even as the threats ramp up.

The company is not yet making money, but has raised close to $17 million so far. Hering notes that Lookout is its adding tens of thousands of users every day, saying "the next million will come pretty quickly."